I was hoping Lake Dorothy wasn't too busy and as luck had it I had lunch with the lake alone. The trail has a little snow on the way up and it gets more considerable just as you hit the lake. A family of four had left just after I started off from the trailhead and after talking with them they didn't make it past the sign the splits you left to the camping and beyond or to the right to the "Day Use" area. A little route finding for about 1/4 mile got to were the trail was fairly obvious with some good signs that you were still on it. I started to break trail towards Lake Bear but decided since I was along and there was not likely to be anyone following it wasn't the best choice so I turned around and headed down to the lake camping area. One other soul had made it there since it had last snowed, looked like probably last week. There is one blow down that you need to straddle, and another you need to sneak around; if you have limited mobility this trail isn't going to be for you. There are a lot of stairs on the way up. Finally, the bugs are just starting to come out.

The route was manageable in trail shoes although my feet were wet. I had micro-spikes that I wore back down for a 1/2 mile and gaiters, which I didn't use but I probably would have had I been deciding to camp. the road up was fine with a few pot holes. My Jetta made it to the trailhead without event.

We planned to hike all the way up to Lake Bear and Lake Deer but we couldn’t make it because winter weather advisory was issued for Stevens pass area and it snowed like crazy all day.

We arrived at the trailhead at 9:15am, nobody was there, and the toilet was closed for winter weather. NF-6412 is very well maintained but there is a mudslide (all cleared and looks okay for any kind of vehicle) and a fallen tree (you should go over it). Rain changed to snow as we approached the trailhead, but no snow had accumulated on the parking lot yet.

The first half mile was very wet, but there was no snow on the trail at all. As we approached Lake Dorothy, heavy snow accumulated very quickly, and some spots between the north side of the lake to the south side were more than 2 feet deep. It wasn’t difficult to go through the snow because the snow was very soft and not very wet. It felt just like walking though sugar powder! The snow was getting heavier, and we decided not to go further at the south end of Lake Dorothy because it didn’t look okay to go to a higher elevation in such a crazy winter weather condition.

We had a great lunch that lasted an hour, and the view of Lake Dorothy to the north from where we were sitting was amazingly beautiful! I really wanted to stay there longer to enjoy the beauty, but the weather didn’t allow us to do that. The way back wasn’t that difficult but traversing the boulder area was a little tricky. We came back to the trailhead at 3pm and found out that the parking lot was covered with snow (~ 1 inch deep).

It was a really awesome and unforgettable winter hike!

You can see more in detail on this hike at:

http://www.ramblr.com/[…]/mymap_viewer.php?trip_id=5229

"I suppose we could do that Lake Dorothy hike again," my hiking buddy Marin suggested (we had done it last September, but only as far as Deer Lake.) It sounded appealing to me, so we set off on what promised to be a really fine day. While still in the urban area, driving past the north end of Lake Washington at 6 AM, we noted a huge flock of crows. There must have been several hundred, and they were flying past for some time. Symbolic of what, we did not know. But they were headed in a direction
opposite to ours.

When we reached the trailhead at the end of the Miller River Road we found three cars there already, and we noted one hiker starting up the trail a few minutes ahead of us. Hardly the "scores" predicted in the
hiking guide. We did not see that hiker again, and we seemed to have all four lakes completely to ourselves. (No idea where the occupants of the three cars had gone.) On our return leg, we did encounter one lone hiker between Deer and Bear lakes and, when we were back almost to the trailhead, we met two pairs of backpackers heading in for the weekend. A wonderfully uncrowded day.

Our hike began with a cool, stiff breeze flowing down the valley of the Miller River and Camp Robber Creek, particularly noticeable as we crossed the bridge over the white water of the creek, before beginning our climb up to Lake Dorothy. Incongruously, once we reached the lake the air seemed completely still.

Near the north end of the lake we noted a new sign indicating directions to the outlet and inlet, and on to Bear Lake. The new sign is more informative than the old sign, but much less picturesque. That old sign - it was there as recently as last year - was quite small, and had only the single word, "Bear," with an arrow pointing left. Wish I had thought to photograph it at the time.

We ventured first to the outlet, the only vantage point for viewing Dorothy's full two mile length. My buddy Marin, who has a superb eye for spotting birds, pointed down to the outlet stream, inviting me to look. And in fact there was a bird there, a dipper performing its characteristic knee bends on the rocks between forays into the water.

When we reached the southern end of Lake Dorothy we found an easy crossing of the inlet stream on large rocks. Soon, we heard the cries of a hawk, or other bird of prey. We spotted the bird - Marin suggested it likely was an osprey - perched atop a dead tree. The bird soon took flight, and then was buzzed by another bird, black with a white head, apparently an eagle in a territorial dispute.

The ongoing trail climbed several hundred feet to a pass, then dropped a couple of hundred feet to Bear Lake and its nearby twin Deer Lake. Both are rather pretty, in relaxing, forested settings.

Continuing on the trail a short distance beyond Deer Lake we began to see a bit of Snoqualmie Lake showing up through the trees. But it's a slow descent with switchbacks to get down to the water's edge some 400 feet below. On the way, we lost count of the number of large tree trunks that until very recently had blocked the trail. Our immense gratitude to the trail crews who bucked up and moved those major blowdowns from the route!

At the north end of Snoqualmie Lake we found a narrow white sandy beach and a great lunch rock as a seat to enjoy our solitary view of this beautiful lake. It's at a relatively low elevation (3147 ft) and surrounded by forest, and we enjoyed the sensation that we were over 7 miles from our trailhead (It's 8.5 miles via the alternative southern approach from the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and Taylor Rivers.)

This is a long hike, although not difficult. The elevation gain hiking in is about 1600 feet from the trailhead up to the pass between Lake Dorothy and Bear Lake. Then, on the return hike, the gain is about 650 feet from Snoqualmie Lake back up to the pass. The total distance, depending on which reference or map is used, seems to be around 15 miles. Definitely worth the effort!

No bears at Lake Bear, no deer at Lake Deer and amazingly no people at Lake Dorothy! The trail is nicely maintained going into Lake Dorothy. There are 2 boulder fields as you go around the lake that small children might have trouble with. (Backpackers, there is some nice campsites at the end of the lake.) Rock hop across the inlet stream, switchback up the ridge and drop into the next 2 lakes. There is a nice place to camp by the inlet stream to Deer where we ate our lunch. This is a lake hike, with no major views of mtns. The best views are on the way up to the top of the ridge from lake Dorothy, you can't see much from the top. If you have a low tolerance for bugs, juice up before the hike.